Far, very far from Qatar where the Tunisians celebrated Khazri’s goal in the 58th minute of the match against the Blues thinking that it would open the road to qualification for them, thousands of Australians, massed in the center of Melbourne followed on giant screens the Socceroos against Denmark. A goal allowed them to pass Tunisia and accompany France in the round of 16. He arrived two minutes later. In the 60th minute by Mathew Leckie. At this moment it was 3 am in Melbourne but the madness has already taken hold of the Australians.
Second in Group D behind the Blues (on goal difference), but ahead of Tunisia, which they had beaten in the previous match (1-0), Australia only got out of the group stage only once, in 2006 in Germany. She was then stopped in the round of 16 by Italy (1-0), future world champion.
“It’s so many emotions, launched Matthew Leckie, the scorer. We want to dream big and we said when we arrived that we wanted to pass the first round. Now it’s done. There is now one more game. The most important thing now is to be ready. A lot of players are exhausted, but that’s exactly what was needed to get a result tonight. We had no control over what was happening in the other match (Tunisia-France), we had to win, we arrived with a good mentality to win, play our game and I think it’s deserved. Playing a World Cup was a dream when I was young. We hope to be an inspiration to young people. »
After the disappointment of the defeat against the Blues in the first match (4-1) after having opened the scoring, the Australians trembled at the end of the match when the Danes pushed to equalize. At the final whistle, the smoke bombs ignited the night in Melbourne.
“I’m so proud that we managed to put smiles on people’s faces, it’s the very first time that an Australian team has won two matches in a row in the World Cup, underlined Graham Arnold, the Australia coach at a press conference:. We may be talking about a new golden generation. We talked a lot about the golden generation of 2006 who scored four points, we scored six. I’m really proud of the young players in the team, the boys are getting stronger and stronger, but at the same time the more experienced players have also grown a lot to become leaders. Matthew Leckie has been amazing, you can see he has that drive in his eyes. And that’s good for Asia. Asian football is getting stronger and stronger, especially in the Middle East, but also in Japan, South Korea. »
At 6 a.m. in Melbourne, thousands of supporters were still dancing in the streets of Melbourne.